My name is Kate and I am a child window safety advocate, a military spouse, and best of all, a Mom. I currently reside in Lincoln Military Housing in La Mesa, California. On April 27, 2020, my one-year old son fell approximately 15 feet out of our second-story window. He survived with a traumatic brain injury. Two months later, I watched my neighbor’s son fall out of their second story window to the concrete below. He was also a lucky survivor. I cannot even begin to describe how traumatizing and horrific this has been for our whole family. And worse, not all children in military housing survive these falls, as evidenced by Evan English-the catalyst for Evan’s Law. I am writing because I need your help to stop these terrifying window falls, before another child is injured or dies.

I thank you for your hard work for all of our military families. I ask that you help me call out Lincoln Military Housing, and the other “Big Five”, as well- I believe they are putting profits over people in regards to installing measures for child window safety in a timely fashion. For example, Tricare has paid out well over $40,000 alone for all of my son’s medical bills related to his fall. This does not account for whatever medical and mental health interventions he may need in the future as well, nor my entire family’s ongoing mental health interventions due to this trauma. How many safety measures for windows could have been purchased with that amount of taxpayer money? At approximately $60 per item, my guess is quite a lot. To add insult to literal injury, my son’s accident has been denied by LMH to other residents in the neighborhood when they request their own safety measures to be installed. I have been pushed aside by their representatives when asking for homes to be made safer here. I have questioned the triads at Naval Base San Diego, Naval Base Point Loma and Naval Base Coronado at town hall meetings regarding the issue. The triads have done their best at answering, as their hands are tied with what they can tell me. I appreciate them for their honest efforts. I have contacted numerous Ombudsmen, multiple executives at Fleet and Family Service Center and talked at length with maintenance members here, all to no avail. The Military Housing Advocacy Network has been my next step and I am proud to have them on my side to help me resolve this issue. And the time is now.

Please help me advocate for my son, Robbie, and for all of the children that live in PPV military housing. I ask for all existing military homes to be retrofitted with proper window guards in accordance with Evan’s Law in a timely fashion. I ask that civilians like me have a place as Ombudsmen on an oversight committee to ensure that safety measures, such as window guards, are actually in place. And I ask that PPV military housing companies are held accountable if they “skirt the line” or ignore putting safety measures in place by cancelling their contracts with the government and awarding them to companies that do the right thing. One child injured, one child dead, is one too many. Will you please help me?